arXiv subjects

Thomas Hertog

Publications and source records attributed to Thomas Hertog.

89 records · Page 5Linked to original sources

arXiv2006

Populating the Landscape: A Top Down Approach

We put forward a framework for cosmology that combines the string landscape with no boundary initial conditions. In this framework, amplitudes for alternative histories for the universe are calculated with final boundary conditions only. This leads to a top down approach to cosmology, in which the histories of the universe depend on the precise question asked. We study the observational consequences of no boundary initial conditions on the landscape, and outline a scheme to test the theory. This is illustrated in a simple model landscape that admits several alternative inflationary histories for the universe. Only a few of the possible vacua in the landscape will be populated. We also discuss in what respect the top down approach differs from other approaches to cosmology in the string landscape, like eternal inflation.

hep-th↗

arXiv2005

Stability in Designer Gravity

We study the stability of designer gravity theories, in which one considers gravity coupled to a tachyonic scalar with anti-de Sitter boundary conditions defined by a smooth function W. We construct Hamiltonian generators of the asymptotic symmetries using the covariant phase space method of Wald et al.and find they differ from the spinor charges except when W=0. The positivity of the spinor charge is used to establish a lower bound on the conserved energy of any solution that satisfies boundary conditions for which $W$ has a global minimum. A large class of designer gravity theories therefore have a stable ground state, which the AdS/CFT correspondence indicates should be the lowest energy soliton. We make progress towards proving this, by showing that minimum energy solutions are static. The generalization of our results to designer gravity theories in higher dimensions involving several tachyonic scalars is discussed.

hep-th↗

arXiv2005

Holographic Description of AdS Cosmologies

To gain insight in the quantum nature of the big bang, we study the dual field theory description of asymptotically anti-de Sitter solutions of supergravity that have cosmological singularities. The dual theories do not appear to have a stable ground state. One regularization of the theory causes the cosmological singularities in the bulk to turn into giant black holes with scalar hair. We interpret these hairy black holes in the dual field theory and use them to compute a finite temperature effective potential. In our study of the field theory evolution, we find no evidence for a "bounce" from a big crunch to a big bang. Instead, it appears that the big bang is a rare fluctuation from a generic equilibrium quantum gravity state.

hep-th↗

arXiv2004

Designer Gravity and Field Theory Effective Potentials

Motivated by the AdS/CFT correspondence, we show that there is a remarkable agreement between static supergravity solutions and extrema of a field theory potential. For essentially any function V, there are boundary conditions in anti de Sitter space so that gravitational solitons exist precisely at the extrema of V and have masses given by the value of V at these extrema. Based on this, we propose new positive energy conjectures. On the field theory side, each function V can be interpreted as the effective potential for a certain operator in the dual field theory.

hep-th↗

arXiv2004

Stability and Thermodynamics of AdS Black Holes with Scalar Hair

Recently a class of static spherical black hole solutions with scalar hair was found in four and five dimensional gauged supergravity with modified, but AdS invariant boundary conditions. These black holes are fully specified by a single conserved charge, namely their mass, which acquires a contribution from the scalar field. Here we report on a more detailed study of some of the properties of these solutions. A thermodynamic analysis shows that in the canonical ensemble the standard Schwarzschild-AdS black hole is stable against decay into a hairy black hole. We also study the stability of the hairy black holes and find there always exists an unstable radial fluctuation, in both four and five dimensions. We argue, however, that Schwarzschild-AdS is probably not the endstate of evolution under this instability.

hep-th↗

arXiv2004

An AdS Crunch in Supergravity

We review some properties of N=8 gauged supergravity in four dimensions with modified, but AdS invariant boundary conditions on the m^2=-2 scalars. There is a one-parameter class of asymptotic conditions on these fields and the metric components, for which the full AdS symmetry group is preserved. The generators of the asymptotic symmetries are finite, but acquire a contribution from the scalar fields. For a large class of such boundary conditions, we find there exist black holes with scalar hair that are specified by a single conserved charge. Since Schwarschild-AdS is a solution too for all boundary conditions, this provides an example of black hole non-uniqueness. We also show there exist solutions where smooth initial data evolve to a big crunch singularity. This opens up the possibility of using the dual conformal field theory to obtain a fully quantum description of the cosmological singularity, and we report on a preliminary study of this.

hep-th↗

arXiv2004

Towards a Big Crunch Dual

We show there exist smooth asymptotically anti-de Sitter initial data which evolve to a big crunch singularity in a low energy supergravity limit of string theory. This opens up the possibility of using the dual conformal field theory to obtain a fully quantum description of the cosmological singularity. A preliminary study of this dual theory suggests that the big crunch is an endpoint of evolution even in the full string theory. We also show that any theory with scalar solitons must have negative energy solutions. The results presented here clarify our earlier work on cosmic censorship violation in N=8 supergravity.

hep-th↗

arXiv2004

Update on Cosmic Censorship Violation in AdS

We reexamine our proposed counterexample (gr-qc/0307102) to cosmic censorship in anti de Sitter (AdS) space, and find a gap in the construction. We mention some possible ways to close the gap, but at present the question of whether cosmic censorship is violated in AdS remains open.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2004

Black Holes with Scalar Hair and Asymptotics in N=8 Supergravity

We consider N=8 gauged supergravity in D=4 and D=5. We show one can weaken the boundary conditions on the metric and on all scalars with $m^2 <-{(D-1)^2 \over 4}+1$, while preserving the asymptotic anti-de Sitter (AdS) symmetries. Each scalar admits a one-parameter family of AdS-invariant boundary conditions for which the metric falls off slower than usual. The generators of the asymptotic symmetries are finite, but generically acquire a contribution from the scalars. For a large class of boundary conditions we numerically find a one-parameter family of black holes with scalar hair. These solutions exist above a certain critical mass and are disconnected from the Schwarschild-AdS black hole, which is a solution for all boundary conditions. We show the Schwarschild-AdS black hole has larger entropy than a hairy black hole of the same mass. The hairy black holes lift to inhomogeneous black brane solutions in ten or eleven dimensions. We briefly discuss how generalized AdS-invariant boundary conditions can be incorporated in the AdS/CFT correspondence.

hep-th↗

arXiv2003

Generic Cosmic Censorship Violation in anti de Sitter Space

We consider (four dimensional) gravity coupled to a scalar field with potential V(ϕ). The potential satisfies the positive energy theorem for solutions that asymptotically tend to a negative local minimum. We show that for a large class of such potentials, there is an open set of smooth initial data that evolve to naked singularities. Hence cosmic censorship does not hold for certain reasonable matter theories in asymptotically anti de Sitter spacetimes. The asymptotically flat case is more subtle. We suspect that potentials with a local Minkowski minimum may similarly lead to violations of cosmic censorship in asymptotically flat spacetimes, but we do not have definite results.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2003

Negative Energy in String Theory and Cosmic Censorship Violation

We find asymptotically anti de Sitter solutions in N=8 supergravity which have negative total energy. This is possible since the boundary conditions required for the positive energy theorem are stronger than those required for finite mass (and allowed by string theory). But stability of the anti de Sitter vacuum is still ensured by the positivity of a modified energy, which includes an extra surface term. Some of the negative energy solutions describe classical evolution of nonsingular initial data to naked singularities. Since there is an open set of such solutions, cosmic censorship is violated generically in supergravity. Using the dual field theory description, we argue that these naked singularities will be resolved in the full string theory.

hep-th↗

arXiv2003

Negative Energy Density in Calabi-Yau Compactifications

We show that a large class of supersymmetric compactifications, including all simply connected Calabi-Yau and G_2 manifolds, have classical configurations with negative energy density as seen from four dimensions. In fact, the energy density can be arbitrarily negative -- it is unbounded from below. Nevertheless, positive energy theorems show that the total ADM energy remains positive. Physical consequences of the negative energy density include new thermal instabilities, and possible violations of cosmic censorship.

hep-th↗

arXiv2002

Why Does Inflation Start at the Top of the Hill?

We show why the universe started in an unstable de Sitter state. The quantum origin of our universe implies one must take a `top down' approach to the problem of initial conditions in cosmology, in which the histories that contribute to the path integral, depend on the observable being measured. Using the no boundary proposal to specify the class of histories, we study the quantum cosmological origin of an inflationary universe in theories like trace anomaly driven inflation in which the effective potential has a local maximum. We find that an expanding universe is most likely to emerge in an unstable de Sitter state, by semiclassical tunneling via a Hawking-Moss instanton. Since the top down view is forced upon us by the quantum nature of the universe, we argue that the approach developed here should still apply when the framework of quantum cosmology will be based on M-Theory.

hep-th↗

arXiv2001

Living with Ghosts

Perturbation theory for gravity in dimensions greater than two requires higher derivatives in the free action. Higher derivatives seem to lead to ghosts, states with negative norm. We consider a fourth order scalar field theory and show that the problem with ghosts arises because in the canonical treatment, $ϕ$ and $\Box ϕ$ are regarded as two independent variables. Instead, we base quantum theory on a path integral, evaluated in Euclidean space and then Wick rotated to Lorentzian space. The path integral requires that quantum states be specified by the values of $ϕ$ and $ϕ_{,τ}$. To calculate probabilities for observations, one has to trace out over $ϕ_{,τ}$ on the final surface. Hence one loses unitarity, but one can never produce a negative norm state or get a negative probability. It is shown that transition probabilities tend toward those of the second order theory, as the coefficient of the fourth order term in the action tends to zero. Hence unitarity is restored at the low energies that now occur in the universe.

hep-th↗

arXiv2000

Gravitational Waves in Open de Sitter Space

We compute the spectrum of primordial gravitational wave perturbations in open de Sitter spacetime. The background spacetime is taken to be the continuation of an O(5) symmetric instanton saddle point of the Euclidean no boundary path integral. The two-point tensor fluctuations are computed directly from the Euclidean path integral. The Euclidean correlator is then analytically continued into the Lorentzian region where it describes the quantum mechanical vacuum fluctuations of the graviton field. Unlike the results of earlier work, the correlator is shown to be unique and well behaved in the infrared. We show that the infrared divergence found in previous calculations is due to the contribution of a discrete gauge mode inadvertently included in the spectrum.

hep-th↗

arXiv2000

An Observational Test of Quantum Cosmology

We compute the tensor CMB anisotropy power spectrum for singular and non-singular instantons describing the beginning of an open universe according to the Euclidean no boundary proposal. Singular instantons occur generically, whereas non-singular instantons require more contrived scalar field potentials. For the latter, we consider potentials in which a sharp feature, either negative or positive, is added to a gently sloping potential. In the first case one finds a nearly divergent contribution to the low multipole CMB anisotropy, in conflict with the COBE observations. In the second case the divergence is weaker, but matching the low multipoles forces the added feature to be large and narrow. For singular instantons, there is a better match to the observations, without any such contrivance. The distinction between singular and nonsingular instantons disappears in the limit as the universe becomes flat, but is still observable for densities as high as 0.7 of the critical density.

astro-ph↗

arXiv1999

Gravity Waves from Instantons

We perform a first principles computation of the spectrum of gravity waves produced in open inflationary universes. The background spacetime is taken to be the continuation of an instanton saddle point of the Euclidean no boundary path integral. The two-point tensor correlator is computed directly from the path integral and is shown to be unique and well behaved in the infrared. We discuss the tensor contribution to the cosmic microwave background anisotropy and show how it may provide an observational discriminant between different types of primordial instantons.

astro-ph↗